Shedding the excruciating profundities that turned him into a critical target after 2014’s “The Cut,” Fatih Akin has returned to the more intimate narratives that made two of his earlier (and greatest) films, “Head-On” and “The Edge Of Heaven,” stand out. “In The Fade” tackles Akin’s most personal theme — immigration and cultural identity of Turks and Muslims in Germany — in much more orderly and subtle fashion, and at the very least, we can say that it’s a big step in the right direction towards a surefire dramatic comeback. His little-seen last film, the road-trip comedy “Goodbye Berlin,” was a welcome change in tone for the Turkish-German director, but now he’s stepping back into familiar somber territory. Sadly, the core of ‘Fade’ is essentially banal, and the narrative is too blunt and inert to make any kind of lasting impression.
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The story follows Katja (Diane Kruger), who is happily married to ex-drug dealer with a heart of gold Nuri (Numan Acar) when we meet her. But Akin spends practically no time at all with Katja as wife and loving mother to their adorable son Rocco (Rafael Santana). Instead, within the first 10 minutes of the film, Katja becomes a childless widow after both Nuri and Rocco die in a bomb explosion outside Nuri’s office. Unimaginable grief sets in as the murder investigation begins, with Nuri’s best friend and attorney Danilo (Denis Moschitto) on hand to offer his support and services.
Any motivations from the Muslim community are ruled out immediately, and it doesn’t take long before the culprits are found and arrested. All the evidence points to neo-Nazi couple Edda (Hanna Hilsdorf) and Andre (Ulrich Friedrich Brandhoff), who allegedly targeted Nuri because of his Turkish origin. That’s when ‘Fade’ turns into a courtroom drama, and boy, procedurals have rarely been this unexciting. We only have Johannes Krisch’s Defense Attorney Haberback to thank for keeping things alive; his expressive rigidness, exclamations of “Danke!” after each agitated statement or request, and transparent anxieties are just about the only time “In The Fade” becomes interesting to watch. The plot trudges along as the film leaves us little to contemplate eve as we sympathize with Katja’s situation.
“In The Fade,” try as it might to be some kind of deep character study and tap into the theme of justice, is a flatline of a film. Despite Diane Kruger’s clear commitment to the role, Katja lacks an engaging personality; she exists as an extension of her husband and son, something that — in today’s progressive world — immediately sticks out like a sore thumb. Akin had the opportunity to add an extra layer to the character with his fascinating choice of composer, Queen of Stone Age’s front man Josh Homme – as the tattoos and leather jackets that make up Katja’s appearance give you the sense that she comes from a hard rock background. But, Homme went for a more atmospheric and moody tone, where a bit of aggression would’ve gone a long way to add some spring to Katja’s step.
And then there’s the theme of racism and treatment of immigrants in Germany, which is sadly underplayed. The film closes with an inscription about the innocent lives taken by Germany’s neo-Nazi group National Socialist Underground, but with such lackluster storytelling from Akin and co-writer Hark Bohm, it doesn’t have the kind of gravitas Akin is aiming for.
Told in chapters that separate the three acts of the film (1. Family – 2. Justice – 3. The Sea), “In The Fade” is about as riveting as a great “Law & Order” episode. Seeing the film in the context of the Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered in Competition, doesn’t really help its cause either. The film’s attempt at tackling the procedural process is dwarfed by “A Gentle Creature,” and for a much more interesting take on the theme of justice, you can turn to Yorgos Lanthimos’ cold-hearted “The Killing Of A Sacred Deer.” Of course, these two films have different purposes than Akin’s other than sharing some thematic similarities, but seeing them in the same environment only accentuates “In The Fade” as a pretty good made-for-TV movie and a terribly average theatrical film. [C]
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